Directors Treatmentby Martin Butterworths

The Concept

Set in the present from the point of view of funk mythology past;A classic boy meet girl, girl feigns indifference, makes a fool of him at every turn.He chases her through the

town of ‘Pedestrian Falls’, a post-apoc-

alyptic lawless town.

Strategy

I will draw on the maverick

characters of cin-ematic cult classics.

“Intertextuality is the shaping of texts’ also mean-ings by other texts. It can

include an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in

reading another.”

I intend to marry the audience’s cinematic con-nections with their familiarity of Funk his-tory embracing Clinton’s “semiserious funk mythology” with a “mixture of tribal funk,

elaborate stage props and the relent-less assault on personal inhibition [that] resembled nothing so much as a Space Age Mardi Gras.” The New

York Times. They went on to describe his tour as fea-turing “superbly silly, lavish costumes” and resembling an “opu-lent Baroque ... stage show”.”

I will distil the concepts within this genre of mavericks within a not too distant future. I will outline the drama that it describes, and repeat these motifs in the promo paying homage to undeniable pioneers of the 1970s P-Funk and its mythology namely that of Sun Ra and George Clinton.

Through the intimacy and authenticity of drawing on these staples, the au-dience will watch the promo repeatedly, renewing nostalgic connections and creating new meanings. Not all audiences will necessarily spot the refer-ence and this need not massively detract from their pleasure in the text it-self. But it is often argued that greater pleasure will be derived by those who know the reference and are somehow flattered by this.

Examples of this being done in previous works are:

Block buster promos that are reference to a film;• Madonna,MaterialGirl,MaryLamberth(1985):Diamondsareagirls best friend • 2PacandDrDre,HypeWilliams(1996):MadMax• BeastieBoysSabotage,SpikeJonze(1994):HawaiiFive-O,TheStreetsofSanFrancisco,S.W.A.T.,Baretta,andStarskyandHutch.• REMsshowparodyBadDAY,TimHope(2003)

Synopsis

‘Skinny’ is making his way through a barren waste land. He sneaks past a checkpoint and steals the sentry’s boots and coat. He finds a road and sees a bus travelling in the distance; he runs to catch it and boards the bus to Pedestrian Falls which is full of ‘otherworldly’ travellers. He sits adjacent to a beautiful and indiffer-ent ‘femme fatale’, Missy. He fails to amuse her and falls asleep. He wakes as the bus arrives at Pedestrian Falls, looks to the seat where she sat but she is gone. He looks out the window to see her looking back over her shoulder smirking with his bag.

He makes chase through the strange town which presents as a dystopian future, upset-ting its characters who are all intoxicated by D-Funk on the way. He finds her pick pocketing and confronts her. She sneaks him into a brothel where she pacifies him, ties him to a radiator and escapes out the window with his loot, laughing. He runs out after her without paying the madam of the house, who is furious and notifies the Baron.

Skinnyrunsoutintothestreetwherepeopleseemtobefleeingforcover.Whilehe stands bewildered, a dark figure ‘The Funk Slinger’ stands poised to attack him until Missy pulls Skinny to safety. They run down an alley entering a back door to a night-club where they negotiate their way through the crowded dance floor, only to have their escape scuppered and end up cornered by the Funk Slinger who is about execute them both under the command of the Baron. The club suddenly lights up with twistingsymmetry.WillSkinnygetawaywithhisgirlandhislife…..?

Video References

MICHAELJACKSON-ThrillerCinematic epic & Dancing

JUSTICE-NewLandsProduction Design of era

THESHOES-TimeToDancePace and lighting

2PAC-CaliforniaLoveProduction Design

TRICKYEvolution-RevolutionProduction design of alleyway & mood of lighting.

SWEDISHHOUSEMAFIA-GreyhoundProduction design

DELASOULFeatREDMAN–Oooh

DAFTPUNK-BurningSpeed of edit and exposition

GEORGECLINTON-AtomicDog

COstumes

Hair

As per Philip State

Make up

As per Victoria Gugenheim

I want to extend the theme of Fooling the

audience to trickery and optical illusions

For example: A pair of eyes painted over two peoples’

lips.

Choreography

All those under the influence of D -Funk will be in-voluntarily funk dancing to the beat.In the nightclub everyone will be synchronised, ex-cept the principal cast.

Cinematography

I will be using a lot of 1970s motifs to anchor the

audience outside of sharp digital imagery

Film grainZoom lensContrazoom

Cross disolvesTracing(seeParliamentcover)

70s grade hologram

Characters

Skinny

A renegade outlaw with a mission, a maverick loner, a hustler, and general badass.

MissyA Femme fatale with bad attitude. A chancer,

a hustler, and a thief.

BaronA mad and powerful dictator who holds control of the D-Funk of

Pedestrian Falls.A flayboyant criminal mastermind. lavish psychedelic costume

Funk slingerA bounty hunter, cold and calculating. He is the

iron fist the Bar-on runs the town

with. Dead-ly weapon: Ghetto blaster

Madame

Scene 1:Wilderness

Skinny makes his way across a desolate landscape,findsacoatandboots…

…thencontinuesdownaseeminglyendlessroad.Wetime-lapsejumpcuthisjourney.

Scene 2:Bus

Skinny meets Missy and she robs him while he sleeps

Scene 3:A town called Pedestrian Falls

Skinny chases Missy, she is making fool out of him at every turn, and upsetting thecharactersofPedestrianFalls….

…thebackalleysareteemingwithlifeandpedestrian traffic.

Hologram billboards.

SetBuildLogistics

Scene 4:D-Funk

Machine

D-Funk is the lusted after potion that the town is in the grip of. It stains the ears

of all the ears it is pumped into.

Tonic water and a blacklight will be used to achieve the luminescence. The water contains quinine which absorbs light and re-emits it.

Scene 5:Baron Office

UnbeknowntoSkinny,heisupsettingcharactersofthetown and being watched by the Baron of Pedestrian Falls on CCTV at every turn. The Baron demands Skinny be made

an example of at the hands of the Funk Slinger .

Scene 6:Funk

Slinging

The Funk Slinger stands in the middle of the street while the locals run for cover. Skinny is oblivious to the Mex-ican stand off and the Funk Slingers agenda and continues

to scan for Missy.At the Baron’s command, the Funk Slinger will funk him to death. Missy intervenes at the last minute and pulls him

to safety.

Scene 7:NightClub

Missy has pulled Skinny away to safety into a night club. All the inhabitants of Pedestrian Falls are choreographed

funk dancing.The Baron scans the dance floor from his balcony and sets his laser machine in motion for the spectacle grand fi-

nale.

Logisticsoflasereffect

I intend to make Metatron’s cube from lasers and mirrors. Please see the image below.The thirteen circles are a feature of the back wall, which also contains a single mirror at the centre of cir-cle13.Severalfeetfromthewallwillbe6pairsofmirrorscorrespondingtothecentresofcircles7to12.

• 1to6areintheforegroundwith7to12being between them and the wall.• Thebluelinesrepresentbeamsthatlieonlyonthefrontplain:Thiswouldtake3laserstoachieve.• Theyellowlinesrepresentbeamsthatlieonlyontheintermediateplane:Thiswouldtake3lasersto achieve.• Thegreenlinesrepresentbeamsthattraverse between the front and intermediate plane: Thiswouldtake2laserstoachieve.• Theredlinesrepresentbeamsthattraversefromthe front plain to the back of the room and reflectedbacktothefront:Thiswouldtake3lasersto achieve.

CrewMartin Butterworth - Director & Production

Designerhttp://martinbutterworth.tumblr.com/

OwenCant-DirectorOfPhotographyhttp://owencant.com/

SkyeStrehlerWeston-ArtDirectorhttp://skyestrehler.tumblr.com/

KyleWittington-CameraOperatorAlex HollowBread - Focus Puller

Danny Scott Smith - 1st Assistant Directorhttp://dannyscott-smith.tumblr.com/SarahBrady-3rdAssistantDirector

Amy McIntyre - Script SupervisorLauchlanScott-DITJakeHall-ProducerTom Crowe - Grip

HowardJohnson-ArtdirectorsassistantTimLorlor-constructionmanager

Paul Spyker - construction manager’s assistantSte Rauer - laser design

Molly Mc Connell - Set dresserHair Phil - State & staff

VictoriaGugenheim&staff-MakeUpsparks&clapper(TBA)

Choreography(TBA)

HowardTimLorlorSte Rauer

Molly Mc Connell